Earthwork Mounts in Huntingdonshire

MOUNTS [Class D].

KIMBOLTON, CASTLE HILL

The Castelle is double diked, and the building of it is metely strong, it longed to
the Mandeviles, Erles of Essex…….There is a plotte now clene desolatid not a
mile by west of Kimoltoun caullid “Castel Hylle,” where appere diches and tokens
of old buildings.'

Castle Hill

Castle Hill at Kimbolton in Huntingdonshire

The double dykes of the castle are no longer to be seen, and were doubtless
filled in when Vanbrugh built the present house; but in the park, less than a
mile to the west, is a large flat mound surrounded by a moat, now known as ‘The
Mound,’ but its name of ‘The Castle Hill’ was known less than a hundred years
ago. The mound stands near the top of strongly rising ground and is roughly
circular, 140 ft. in diameter; it now rises 5 ft. 3 in. above the water level of
the moat, but owing to the sloping site the normal line of the ground is nearly
down to the water edge on one side, while it is 5 ft. higher on the other. The
mound, although now so low, is evidently a Norman motte, but there are no
ramparts of any kind, nor are there any traces of a bailey or other outer works.

A few trees were planted on it circa 1800-1828, and it has for many years been a
rabbit warren.

MOUNTS WITH ONE OR MORE ATTACHED COURTS. [Class E.]

HUNTINGDON CASTLE

The fine earthwork of Huntingdon Castle
stands at the southern end of
Huntingdon town, near the bridge. It consists of a motte
and bailey, surrounded on three sides by moats but on the south side the moat
was omitted and the River Ouse served the purpose.

Huntingdon Castle

Ground plan of Huntingdon Castle

The site is now divided into three parts: the central and largest
part belongs to the town and is open to the public, and contains the motte and
the greater part of the bailey; the southern part has been separated from the
rest by the railway which cuts through the outer rampart at the south-east
corner and runs through the southern side of the inner moat, and this part is
now in a private garden; the northern part, divided from the central portion by
a fence, is in the garden of Castle Hill House. The rampart of the southern
portion remains, except at its eastern end where the railway cuts through the
site, but the adjacent parts of the bailey have been entirely destroyed.

The outer moat of this part is fairly well preserved, but the bottom appears to
have been raised by an accumulation of rubbish. At the south-east corner, where
the moat joins the river, the slope of the rampart is well shown. Of the central
portion the rampart on the eastern side is
well preserved and the moat is almost complete, being only encroached upon to a
small extent by the garden wall of the adjoining Bridge House Hotel. At the
northern end of this side the rampart appears to attain its greatest height, and
this height seems to be contained on the section of the rampart now in the
garden of Castle Hill House. Between the two sections, a roadway has been formed
from the High Street into the middle of the bailey, and the earth of the
rampart, cut away fro this purpose, has apparently been thrown into the moat,
the bottom of which at this point is very high. It is probable that the original
entrance to the castle was at this point. The portion of the moat in the garden
of Castle Hill House is well defined, and, on the whole, this part of the Castle
does not seem to have been much injured by the making of the garden, except at
the extreme end where part of the slope has been cut away into and a kind of
rockery and grotto has been built up with ancient stones brought from elsewhere.

The motte, which stands at the western end of the central portion, is very fine;
it is 200 ft. in diameter at its base and 120 ft. across the top, and it rises
to a height of 38 ft. above the river. On the southern side part of the slope
has been cut away in forming the railway. For many years a windmill stood upon
the top, and there are evident signs that a readway to this mill was formed,
partly by filling up the inner moat and partly by cutting into the sides of the
motte.

It is difficult to say what was the original level of the bailey, the Castle
having been destroyed to long ago as 1174 and the surface being now extremely
irregular and presenting the appearance in places of having been dug for clay or
gravel. The height of the rampart above the present level of the bailey varies
from 3 ft. 6 in. to 8 ft., the difference being chiefly due to the irregularity
of the bailey. The rampart itself appears to have risen 30 ft. above the river,
and in places it is rather more.

On the outside of the rampart, at the south-east corner, close where the railway
cuts through, there is a well which is called the Castle Well; whether it is
really ancient or whether it has been made since the Castle was destroyed, is
perhaps open to question.

Mrs. Armitage, in The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles (1912) says that
‘another bailey was subsequently added.’ In her plan she indicates some
earthworks to the west of the Castle as being probably this additional bailey,
and these have been shown upon the plan here given for what they may be worth
and without passing any opinion as to their origin. They appear to consist of a
deep depression on the east side of the road leading from the town to the great
meadow called Portholme, very like a moat, and now being rapidly filled up with
rubbish. At the northern end the inner bank of the moat, if such it be, may be
followed, curving round to the east, and running through what was until recently
a paddock into the garden of Castle Hill House, where it comes to an end within
80 ft. of the outer moat of the Castle. It is, however, very shallow, and there
is nowhere anything resembling a rampart.

In a private garden on the south side of the railway, the ground, which is
rather high, appears to have been artificially sloped down to the river and is
rather curiously formed at the south-west corner. The original arrangement has
been destroyed by the making of the railway and the building of the house, but
it looks as if the deep depression before mentioned may have continued on and
joined the river at this point, thus inclosing the additional bailey to which
Mrs. Armitage refers.

This Castle was built in 1068, by William the Conqueror, after his return
from York; it came into the possession of the Scottish Kings (as Earls of
Huntingdon), and William the Lion taking the part of Prince Henry against his
father King Henry II, that King’s forces besieged the Castle and took it, and it
was pulled down. It is stated that King Henry’s forces threw up a siege-Castle
against it, and it is an interesting speculation that this may be the very fine
hill which stands some 1,100 ft. to the west, and which also became in later
times the site of a windmill. This hill although it stands on naturally rising
ground, is chiefly artificial; it has a diameter of 10 ft. at its base and 60ft.
at the top, and it rises about 10 ft. above the higher parts of the adjacent
ground, but on the south side it slopes down with a continuous line (partly
natural and partly artificial) to a backwater of the Alconbury Brook, a
tributary of the Ouse, 25 ft. below. It had a very distinct ditch on its western
side, still partly remaining but partly destroyed in forming the gardens, etc.,
of a modern house. On the east is a deep by the side of which a roadway has been
formed leading to a watermill which stood across the backwater. On the north
side the ground in the immediate proximity of the hill is high, but owing to the
formation of the railway and to other causes the original arrangement on this
side cannot now be definitely determined.

In giving a plan of Huntingdon Castle and the large hill west of it, it is
convenient to show also a deep ditch some 500 ft. to the west of the latter
hill. This ditch has much the appearance of a boundary ditch and towards its
northern end is wide and its eastern bank is steep and has a low rampart. All
the ground adjoining the backwater at this place rises with a steady slope from
the edge of the stream, but eastward of this ditch it seems to have been
artificially cut to a steeper slope at short distance back from the waterside.

Across the Common, on the other side of the railway, is a long trench, partly
wet, with a wide bank on its eastern side. This trench seems to have been
connected with the deep ditch abovementioned, but at its northern end it dies
out, and its line cannot be traced any farther. Probably this trench dates from
Cromwellian times.

WOOD WALTON CASTLE

This small castle of the motte and bailey type stands upon what appears to be
a natural hillock overlooking the Fens, at the northern end of the parish of
Wood Walton, and is evidently the castle built by Ernald de Mandeville, circa
1144, when he removed his soldiers from Ramsey Abbey. The outer moat encloses a
roughly circular bailey, and the motte is in the centre. The space within the
inner moat was about 90 ft. in diameter, but a large part of the north and west
sides has been lowered practically to the bottom of the moat. It stands some 8
ft 6 in. above the bottom of the moat, and 2 ft. above the outer bank. The outer
bank has been cut away in two places – namely, towards the north-west and the
south-west. From the outer bank of this inner moat the ground slopes gradually
away on all sides towards the outer moat, the bank of which is some 8 ft. to 9
ft. lower; the fall is steepest on the south side.

Wood Walton Castle

Ground plan of Wood Walton Castle

The outer moat remains as a strongly marked dry ditch on the north and
north-east sides; at the south-east it appears as a deep ditch still holding
water, which, however, becomes rather less marked at the southern end. At the
north-west the line of the ditch can still be traced, but it has become rather
faint, and on the west side it has been obliterated by a modern cart road. At
the south-west a hollow place in the grass field evidently marks its line, but
on the south-east is a farmhouse garden.

The space between the inner and the outer moats, which formed the bailey of
the Castle, is about 190 ft. on the north and west, 230 ft. on the east, and
probably slightly more on the south. Within the bailey, towards the north-east,
is a pond, now dry; and towards the south-east is a farmhouse and garden.

A large dyke, apparently ancient, runs from the outer moat in a
north-easterly direction, and slightly to the east of it is another large dyke
by the side of a hedge, but his is probably of much more recent date.

RAMSEY ABBEY, BOOTH’S HILL

Within the moat surrounding Ramsey Abbey, and near its southern side, is a
curious mound surrounded by a moat. The mound, which goes by the name of Booth’s
Hill, is not large, but it has been adapted as an ice-house, in recent years, so
its present form cannot be guaranteed as original; it now rises some 16 ft.
above the bottom of the moat, which is itself 4 ft. below the surrounding
surface. It stands about the middle of the south side of the enclosure, which is
310 ft. long by about 120 ft. wide. Within the enclosure, east-wards of the
mound, is a large pond, and there are also three other depressions, but some of
these may be modern. It is possible that this little castle was erected by
Geoffrey de Mandeville for his own use when he took possession of the Abbey and
quartered his soldiers there. He was killed in 1144, and his son removed the
soldiers to Wood Walton.

Booth's Hill

Ground plan of Booth's Hill, Ramsey Abbey

SAPLEY

This interesting little earthwork, marked on modern Ordnance maps as ‘The
Moat,’ (Lat 52.36328 , Long -0.16810) but much more interestingly described on the older maps as ‘The Mount,’
lies at the northern end of the ancient Royal Forest of Sapley. In plan it is a
small motte and bailey, each enclosed by its own moat. The bailey has a strong
outer bank on its north-east, south-east and south-west sides which runs between
it and the motte. Outside this bank is an outer moat on the south-east and
south-west, but at the southern corner the moat round the motte serves the
purpose.

Sapley

Ground plan of the earthworks at Sapley

This outer moat connects with the moat round the motte, and also with the
western corner of the moat of the bailey, but at its north-east corner it comes
to a dead end. On the north-east the outside ground rises with a fairly strong
slope from the foot of the outer bank of the bailey, forming a wide gutter, but
there is nothing now that could be called an outer moat on that side. The outer
bank of the bailey has been slightly lowered at the south-east corner where it
approaches the motte, but whether this is original it is impossible now to say.
The moats are fairly wide and deep, but the bottoms have been much filled up by
accumulations of mud and leaf mould and it is only in very wet seasons that they
hold a little water in their deeper parts.

Both the banks and the earth of the inner enclosures are planned with trees
and honeycombed with rabbit holes, and it is consequently difficult to say what
their original shape was, but they have a distinctly bold elevation, the motte
rising some 6ft. 6 in. above the present bottom of the moat, and the bailey
rising, in places, as much as 10 ft., while the outer bank of the bailey rises
about 8 ft. The top of the motte is very distinctly hollowed in the middle.

GREAT STAUGHTON, CRETINGSBURY

This interesting earthwork, although called a Manor House and not a Castle,
nevertheless partakes so much of the motte and bailey type that it may be
included in Class E. Its rectangular form no doubt betokens a late date. It was
the manor house of Sir Adam de Creting (died 1294) who married on of the three
co-heiresses of William de Crioll (died d, 1274) and thereby became possessed of
the greater part of
Great Staughton.

Cretingsbury

Ground plan of the earthworks at Cretingsbury, Great Staughton

The earthwork stands on high ground, sloping away rapidly to the north and
south, but fairly level on the other two sides, and comprises a rectangular
space about 650 ft. long by 430 ft wide, enclosed by fairly wide and deep moat
with a well-defined bank both inside and out. The outer bank, which varies
considerably in width, stands some 4 ft. to 5 ft. above the adjoining ground and
6 ft. to 8ft. above the dry bottom of the moat. On the inside the rampart
averages 9 ft. wide at the top and stands about 18 in. above the level of the
ground inside the enclosure. In the middle of the enclosure, towards the
northern end, is a roughly circular inner moat inclosing a mound, very
suggestive of the earlier motte, and itself some 5 ft or more above the level of
the bailey. This inner moat has an extension at the north-west corner which
scarcely reaches the outer moat. The moat round the bailey is now dry except on
the south side and part of the west where there is still water, and it shows a
depth of 6 ft. to 9 ft. from the dry bottom to the top of the rampart, or 5 ft.
to 7 ft. from the water line. The moat round the motte is still wet, and its
water-line is about 5 ft. below the level of the bailey and 10 ft. below the top
of the motte.

Along the south side and south-west corner of the bailey are two long ponds
which have somewhat the appearance of a strengthening of the defences on these
sides, but it is difficult to see how they could have served that purpose;
perhaps they were fish ponds.

The present entrance to the bailey is on the east side, where the moat is
filled up to form a roadway in, and a similar entrance, close to it, has been
made into the motte. At the north-west corner a cart path has been cut through
the outer bank into the bottom of the moat and then up and over the inner bank.
Some farm buildings and a cottage have been built in the north-east corner.
Subject to these slight alterations this earthwork appears to be in a very
perfect condition.

The motte is now surrounded with a hedge and a belt of trees on the edge of
the moat, and the space within this hedge is now a stack yard. The ground here
is highest towards the north and the east, and at the south-west corner it
shelves down rather rapidly towards the moat, a configuration possibly due to
the removal of buildings. The place is now known as the Old Manor House.